WSJ: Unnatural Gas Prices -- The U.S. economy can't run on wind power.

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 3, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

...There was time... when natural gas was the most politically popular fuel around because it burns more cleanly than oil or coal....

Yet supply has not been able to keep up with this demand. Since 1996, natural gas production has grown by less than 1% a year as the most accessible U.S. gas fields are tapped out....

The main political bottleneck is that the professional green lobby has turned hostile to natural gas. The Sierra Club and the Nader retinue have successfully pushed moratoriums for most new offshore drilling of the fuel, have fought to keep the most gas-rich federal lands off-limits to exploration, and have used lawsuits to tie up those pieces that are accessible.... [S]ome 213 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is basically off-limits to production. That's a 10-year supply at current demand.

The enviros are also blocking an even quicker path to lower prices: importing more liquefied natural gas....

The larger political problem here is that the public hasn't been told about the connection between high prices and political opposition to energy production.... Short of a breakthrough in hydrogen technology, we are fated to import large amounts of energy. The real issue is whether we maintain enough energy production, and import capacity, to allow adequate supplies and reasonable prices.

Someone also has to call out environmentalists on their hostility to all fossil fuels, or for that matter all energy production that isn't still a technological fantasy. They once wanted natural gas to replace coal, but now they want wind power to replace natural gas, or at least until the windmills start killing birds and bats and mar the view off Nantucket. And don't even mention nuclear power, which remains taboo though it doesn't emit the CO2 that enviros insist is ruining the planet....

[OESY]

[2banana]

And most of the leaders of the environmental movement drives big SUVs, live in big houses and basically live like fuel prices don't matter - and they don't to the elite limousine liberals...

[nettuno]

Please post the whole article as I am not a member of the WSJ

[joesnuffy]

The larger political problem here is that the public hasn't been told about the connection between high prices and political opposition to energy production....

How the liberals and other greeies help terrorists...by making sure they get the best price for their oil...

The lefties be keepin' us down

[redgolum]

There are a lot of gas wells in Kansas and New Mexico that could be tapped. To bad the EPA won't let them.

[DTogo]

And recently the Democrat Governor signed a moratorium on windmills there, too: it would spoil the "view" in the Flint Hills. As if anyone gives a rat's rear about the view between Kansas City and Denver.

As El Rushbo has been saying for years, the Left doesn't want solutions they want the issue.

[bullseye1911]

There are a lot of gas wells in Kansas and New Mexico that could be tapped. To bad the EPA won't let them.

And alot of wells already tapped in Mich, but capped. Less than 5yrs age, a Total refinery in Alma was bulldozed rather than updated. EPA rules were cost prohibitive.

[Young Werther]

My nephew is a ChemEng and works at the The Beulah North Dakota coal gasification plant. Not only is lighnite coal turned into natural gas but there is a plethora of products that derive from the chemical processing of the coal.

Pass the Gas

[NormalGuy]

And don't even mention nuclear power, which remains taboo though it doesn't emit the CO2 that enviros insist is ruining the planet....

And no mention of how nuclear energy was the pride of the liberal Democrat anti-coal environmentalists. What role did terrorist Bill Ayers play in manipulating the progressive movement to switch to anti-nuclear solely motivated by Bill Ayers love/hate/guilt relationship with his father, the boss of ComEd and the most nuclear power plants?

Take a look. The environmentalist impact on energy has been a series of personal agendas in which science has little role.

The WSJ in this article made no mention of the way the Dem Senators from Montana, Dakotas, MN have blocked energy, especially natural gas, pipeline from Canada that mocks the word "free" in NAFTA. That has been totally a personal agenda with no relation to anything in economics or science.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I thought I read it was the local Indians who opposed the pipeline...

[1Old Pro]

The larger political problem here is that the public hasn't been told about the connection between high prices and political opposition to energy production

BINGO

[VeniVidiVici]

Anybody know an easy way to convert gas use/therm to electricty use/kwh?

My gas bill has doubled over the past few years and I'm looking to convert an appliance or two over to electricity, whose rates haven't risen nearly as much.

Just trying to figure out if it will pay to do it.

[ken21]

you're right!

add to the leaders the legions of college-educated, brainwashed, environmentalists.

no corner of the earth remains unexplored by these well-heeled travelers, as a perusal of the sunday nyt shows.

[FightThePower!]

Most gas plants run around a 10,000-12-000 heat rate. Meaning $7 gas is power for around $75 per Mwh. Compare that to $10 per Mwh for Nuclear or $30 for Coal.